Adidas is a German manufacturer of sports equipment. Their product is very popular with the global community. Lately this famous brand is rumored to produce shoes from plastic waste recycling.
Plastic is a material that is easy to produce and durable. Various products can be made from plastics, such as food containers, bottles, household appliances, medical equipment, motor vehicles, etc. However, plastic waste is increasingly accumulated and eventually become pollution.
The plastic properties that cannot be destroyed through natural processes and survive very long in nature further exacerbate its impact on the environment. New plastics can be degraded after 500-1000 years, and even then still will leave the microplastic particles that are harmful to living things. Removing plastic waste by burning also will only increase the level of pollutants in the air.
Scientific reports that the garbage accumulation in the northern Pacific Ocean called the “Giant Plastic Waste Collection” amounts to about 87,000 tons of plastic waste. Thousands of tons of waste spread to an area of 1.6 million km2 from Hawaii to California. That is equivalent to 85% of Indonesia’s size of 1.9 million km2.
Every year there is a volume of garbage reaching 300 million tons and 8 tons of which flows into the sea. The amount is equivalent to five plastic bags every 30 cm along the world coastline. Ironically, the amount recycled is even less than 8 percent. An effective way to reduce the volume of waste is to recycle plastic into materials with different functions and longer lifespan.
That’s what Adidas did. This German brand is working with an environmental movement called Parley to release shoes made from recycled plastic. Their goal is to do the project not only to create unique, eco-friendly work, but more than that they want to convey a message to Adidas lovers that keeping the sea is very important and requires the contribution of every individual.
Parley itself is a global network of creators, thinkers, and leaders united to prevent sea damage. This organization brings environmental movement to the world of contemporary lifestyle footwear by converting plastic waste into cool items. Some variants of Adidas collaboration is NMD_CS1 Parley, UltraBOSST Parley, and UltraBOOST X Parley.
The materials used to make these shoes are recycled plastics taken from beaches and coastal areas before getting to the ocean. Generally each collection contains 11 plastic bottles used and 95% of their shoes are made of plastic waste from the waters of the Maldives Islands. Last year, this eco-friendly shoe collection sold up to 1 million shoes. Imagine if one shoe alone is enough to reduce the amount of plastic waste, then 1 million shoes will give a very surprising value.
Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the Oceans said that the effort to save the ocean from plastic waste cannot be done alone. Everyone can contribute, for example through the creative industry by redesigning the product materials and business model. For consumers, they can help by increasing the number of product on demand.
If deciding not to use plastic straws any longer has a major impact, the involvement of global brands such as Adidas in reducing plastic waste will have a major impact on the environment.
With the increasing consumer demand for environmentally friendly products, industry players will be increasingly eager to reproduce them. If the production of environmentally friendly goods continues, more and more good effects will be accepted by the environment. Currently there are many leading brands that sell environmentally friendly products, one of that is Adidas.
